Brahms: String Sextets Nos. 1 & 2: Live from Aix Easter Festival 2016

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Theirs is music-making of rare intimacy and shared enjoyment - one has the sense of listening in on six musicians at the top of their game, playing as they might in a cosy domestic setting. — BBC Music Magazine, August 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 13th Apr 2017
Catalogue No: 9029588837
Label: Erato
Length: 76 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

June 2017

Editor's Choice
Gramophone Awards

2018

Finalist - Chamber

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Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 18

Work length37:15

$5.20

$6.80

$7.80

Gautier Capuçon (cello), Clemens Hagen (cello), Marie Chilemme (viola), Gerard Causse (viola), Christoph Koncz (violin), Renaud Capuçon (violin)

I. Allegro ma non troppo

Track length14:34

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

II. Andante ma moderato

Track length9:22

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

III. Scherzo - Allegro molto

Track length3:02

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

IV. Poco allegretto e grazioso

Track length10:17

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36

Work length39:30

$5.20

$6.80

$7.80

Gautier Capuçon (cello), Clemens Hagen (cello), Marie Chilemme (viola), Gerard Causse (viola), Christoph Koncz (violin), Renaud Capuçon (violin)

I. Allegro non troppo

Track length14:07

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

II. Scherzo - Allegro non troppo

Track length7:18

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

III. Poco adagio

Track length8:54

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

IV. Poco allegro

Track length9:11

$1.30

$1.70

$1.95

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For the first time since their recording of Saint-Saëns La Muse et le Poète in 2013, the French brothers reunite for a recording of two of the great pillars of Romantic chamber music – Brahms’ string sextets. At the peak of the musical powers, they both appear regularly throughout the world on all the major concert hall platforms. Alongside their solo careers, performing chamber music with friends has always been an important part of their lives, and here they are joined by Austrian violinist Christoph Koncz, French violists Marie Chilemme and Gérard Caussé, and Austrian cellist Clemens Hagen. The album was recorded live at the Aix Easter Festival 2016.

The sextets are amongst the most joyful and skilfully-written works of the Romantic chamber music canon. While his own voice as a composer can clearly be heard, outside influences from the great Classical era composers such as Schubert and Beethoven are also in evidence.

The second sextet was written around the time Brahms became close to a young singer called Agathe von Siebold, so close in fact that many of their acquaintances thought they would eventually marry. Brahms however refused to be tied down and Agathe broke off the relationship. Near the end of the exposition of the first movement, the first and second violins together spell "Agathe" by playing the notes A-G-A-D-H-E, leading many to deem this work as dedicated to her. After completing the work Brahms wrote to a friend, "Here I have freed myself from my last love."

Reviews

August 2017

Theirs is music-making of rare intimacy and shared enjoyment - one has the sense of listening in on six musicians at the top of their game, playing as they might in a cosy domestic setting.

June 2017

It’s been some years since we’ve had a disc of Brahms’s sextets as thoroughly satisfying as this one...The Capuçon brothers and their colleagues may be an ad hoc group but they play with the unanimity and blended tone of a veteran ensemble...Best of all, the musicians find a near-ideal balance of urgency and patience – the hallmark of a great Brahms interpretation.

Brahms: String Sextets Nos. 1 & 2

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